How do websites work? How do emails reach your computer? How does the use of computer applications affect your daily life?

This unit will help you understand the main technologies and processes behind the internet and investigate how they come together to let you view websites and send information across the world. The internet and web of tomorrow will be even more powerful, more connected, more intuitive and a more important part of our lives. This will result in an internet of services, objects and infrastructure (ubiquitous computing) which will radically change our lives. For example, smart appliances will be able to talk to each other, clothes will monitor our health and retailers will access social media to gain insight into shoppers’ preferences.

Examples of online services, include:
● communication (email, instant messaging, newsgroups, social networking, online conferencing, blogs)
● real-time information (train timetables, news services, traffic reports, flight status updates, weather)
● commerce (internet banking, online auction websites, retail sales, publishing)
● government (online tax returns, e-voting, applications for services/grants, revenue collection)
● education (online learning/training)
● virtual learning environments (VLEs)
● business (video conferencing, collaborative working, business networks)
● entertainment (multi-user games, radio players)